ASML is so interesting. Its like sci-fi that one firm in the Netherlands knows how to make the most complicated machine ever made, and no one else can do it.
And it is arguably the most complicated machine ever made. 50,000 times a second, the EUV lithography machine hits a 25 micron drop of molten tin that is moving at 70 meters per second with two co-ordinated lasers, the first hit to change the shape of the drop of tin in exactly the right way, the second hit to vaporise it, creating Extreme Ultraviolet Light at the right wavelength to etch chip designs onto silicon at "5nm process" sizes. Some labs can cobble together something similar as a proof of concept, but not well enough to make it feasible for mass production of chips.
Video about the light souce - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ge2RcvDlgw
No one else in the world is able to make these machines. If you buy one it costs $150m and gets shipped to you in forty containers on specially adapted planes. Very few firms have the resources/know how to even run the machines - which is what makes TSMC so important.
EUV technology was developed in partnership with the US Department of Energy which is why the US can implement export controls (it was an explicit condition of original deal with the DoE). A significant part of the “secret sauce” is manufactured in San Diego.
It’s not really “one firm in the Netherlands”, it’s a global collaboration that goes back to the 1990s. Intel was involved from the beginning, they just dropped the ball.
The rest of the machine is no less incredible - the EUV light is reflected off a series of mirrors (the largest weighing, IIRC, somewhere in the region of 300kg, and the largest that Zeiss have ever made) onto a mask of the target pattern, which is rapidly shuttling back and forth, onto another series of mirrors, and finally focused onto the wafer stage, which is also moving precisely in step with the mask, to expose the photoresist on a single die which is on the order of 10mm square.
And each wafer goes through multiple cycles of this, so not only does the machine rapidly create features at the nanonmetre scale with incredible accuracy, but again and again in exactly the same place after removing and returning the wafer.
Oh, and the wafer stage is pretty fun too; it uses an electrostatic chuck that induces a charge in the wafer and therefore holds it firmly in place without needing any kind of suction that could distort the wafer.
Promotional fly through video from ASML here: https://youtu.be/h_zgURwr6nA
Asianometry video about the stage: https://youtu.be/1fOA85xtYxs
Another short video about the light source: https://youtu.be/9VDJMivfhGU
They were a big customer of a former company I worked for. I had a session at our executive briefing center, and myself and everyone else was just floored and geeking out on their tech.
While EUV lithography machines are surely a contender, the most complicated machine every made is likely the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). A 27 km tunnel in which protons (with cross section about 10^-28 square meters) collide head on. Hard to imagine this amount of alignment is possible.
It appears that ASML alone knows the correct rituals to keep the Machine Spirit cooperative.
> Very few firms have the resources/know how to even run the machines - which is what makes TSMC so important.
I dispute that this is simply what sets TSMC apart. The process of designing transistors and chip "IP" (the term used) such as 2.5D stacking technologies and the like (which is where coordination with EDA companies like Synopsys, Cadence, and etc. comes in) is just one thing. Then to prepare the photomask (I'm sure there are partners, but still), and operate the whole clean room facility around the input and output of wafers and other materials into these ASML/other fabrication machines is another thing.
ASML seems to strike deep at personal identities: it's the only European player in space dominated by American and Asian companies.
Every time anyone mentions ASML, I see comments of adulation. It's a very human tendency to hero-worship, especially fanboys who only recognize the name but don't understand the history or the ecosystem.
It's useful to remember that ASML didn't outcompete rivals through brilliant innovation in a heated market race. Instead it won mostly by being the last one standing. All the other players dropped out. Nikon and Canon made strategic decisions not to pursue EUV because it was too risky and expensive. ASML, a small Phillips spinoff, couldn't do it alone either. It took two decades and billions of investments backed by Intel and TSMC to keep ASML going before the first breakthrough -- it was a lot of persistence and incrementalism. ASML was essentially a side bet/strategic hedge by Intel, TSMC and Samsung.
(all this is covered on Asianometry)
People associate ASML with the Netherlands, but it would not have been possible without the massive contributions of the Americans, the Taiwanese, the Germans, and the Japanese.
It's like Grigori Perelman and the Poincare conjecture -- he didn't accept the Fields Medal for it because he felt that he just happened to the last person to put the pieces together (he was building on work by Thurston, Hamilton, etc.).
We see ASML as this amazing Dutch company, but we forget all the other players were critical to making this singular company possible (only because it happened to be the only one standing, not because no one else is capable -- this is the great misconception).
Cymer was the best purchase they ever made. But it also means they're totally beholden to US export controls. That light source is made in San Diego after all.
A part of reason No one else can make these machines is because US has tight control on who's allowed to even develop that tech.
I regret to inform the various nationalists here this wasn't really developed by one group. ASML signed contracts for research and technology from multiple different countries. The Netherlands isn't being strong armed here. It is having to comply with a heavily negotiated contract that they signed decades ago when they aquired a US based firm using export controlled US DOE research.
And what are ASML and the Netherlands in general getting out of it?
This is just a small country getting strong-armed by the US. You can be as pro NATO, pro US, pro "transatlantic relations" as you can and they'll still screw you over. Seriously I can't wait for the EU to get their shit together so we can stop being such pushovers.
The supply chain for these machines is heavily dependent on the US and the Netherlands is heavily dependent on US security guarantees, just like the rest of Europe.
Article from 2001: What ASML agreed to do to win U.S. approval of SVG merger
> VELDHOVEN, the Netherlands — To win U.S. clearance in the purchase of Silicon Valley Group Inc., officials at ASM Lithography Holding N.V. agreed to a number of restrictions and obligations aimed at protecting lens technology and maintaining operations in the United States. But the Dutch company's CEO today said many of those requirements are compatible with ASML's original goals in buying SVG.
> ASML today announced it had finally cleared U.S. review of its planned purchase of San Jose-based SVG about seven months after announcing plans to acquire the lithography supplier for $1.6 billion in stock. Completion of the merger had been stalled for several months because of concerns about U.S. national security and protection of defense-related technologies. The U.S. government agreement now clears the way for ASML to complete its takeover of SVG within the next few weeks, according to officials in Veldhoven (see today’s story).
> “Clearly any CEO would like a completely free hand, with no obligations,” said ASML chief executive officer Doug Dunn, during a conference call today following the announcement of the agreement. Dunn said a free hand was “never going to be the case with this particular merger/takeover. The U.S. government took a very strong interest in this because, in their opinion, it very clearly effected national security.”
> Topping the list of requirements in the agreement is a promise by ASML to make a “good faith effort” to sell SVG's Tinsley Laboratories subsidiary within six months of completing the acquisition of Silicon Valley Group. Tinsley's lens-polishing technology was one of the major concerns blocking ASML from finishing its purchase of SVG.
The article continues: https://www.eetimes.com/what-asml-agreed-to-do-to-win-u-s-ap...
Well for one, the EUV technology ASML is known for was licensed to ASML under terms dictated by the US, since it is literally a result of US government funded research.
A lot of the IP in what ASML does is held by KLA, Intel, IBM, etc. So america has quite a lot of say in it.
They don't have a choice. ASML licenses the intellectual property for EUV lithography from the US government. Therefore they follow US export control laws on EUV machines.
They don't get Nordstreamed.
They're allowed to export the wafer handling systems (roughly half of their big litho machine) currently manufactured in Wilton Connecticut.
They get to avoid sanctions and other consequences. It's not meant to be equitable.
But there are still benefits to NL since China is their adversary too.
> what are ASML and the Netherlands in general getting out of it?
Wow, the conspiracy theories in this thread are nuts.
The Netherlands is a port economy and agricultural exporter. The U.S. Navy protects the sea lanes it relies on. The Netherlands have been a reliable and natural American ally because our interests align--particularly when it comes to a war as potentially devastating to international trade as a Pacific conflict.
(Zooming in to ASML, their largest customer is TSMC.)
I wonder to what extent ASML management looks at Kawasaki Heavy Industries' contracts to build high speed rail in China and says, "that's the outcome we want!"
I feel like it’s one of those things where not complying and finding out is not a good option, especially with the disregard and disrespect the US has shown towards the ICC I don’t think doing petty things that inconvenience the Dutch economy would be unthinkable, with the new president I think saying the quiet part out loud, - hell, screaming the quiet part as loud as you can - might be the new norm
The Netherlands gets to continue purchasing F-35A fighters and participating in the NATO nuclear sharing arrangement. This is the ultimate guarantee of sovereignty which trumps any mere commercial concerns. Quid pro quo.
Well, they're a pretty big employer, and not in the Randstad.
Maybe the kid of some ASML exec gets to go to Harvard?
Who knows. In the last batch of negotiations they never made the deal public. These deals get made by elites and the public never learns the details.
Curious who you think uses these devices and who designs and distributes the chips.
Without the American companies not sure the benefits would be the same to the Netherlands or to ASML.
Lots of trips to Silicon Valley to learn the "secrets" of being masters of the digital universe.
Somehow it never leads to anything :-)
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We can carry the flag for the US in the war of trying to dominate the planet. I think it is a worthy goal.
ASML gets to see the Chinese government sink the big money into rendering them obsolete, they get to see their stock implode and to shut down RND. But the Netherlands will get to see ASML pack their bags and leave. This of course besides further unpredictable retaliation from China.
We also love it when our government takes marching orders from the US.
Until china is not able to produce state-of-the-art EUV photolitographers, they will be "grounded" to produce old silicon process chips.
Or until the US invades Greenland, and will be barred by the EU of ever using ASML machines again ;-)
Is EUV the only way? Isn't there a much slower technique with laser engraving, but which they may scale in some other way?
https://www.asianometry.com/p/euv-lithography-but-with-a-fre...
It would be really interesting if in order to compete and not being able to get anywhere with photolithography if they come up with some other material to make processors or something else. Silicon is the thing that has been worked on and billions have been spent on it over decades. Now with chinese government as well private companies spending billions on a break through we might get something out of left field where private companies would not have been willing to invest in. As they say competition/war speeds up innovation.
USA the parent of the world, grounding unruly teenagers like the PRC.
they'd still need know-how what to produce, and that seems to also be the hard part if not way harder.
No, we don't "allign".
We get pressured until we do what America wants us to do.
These export controls seem particularly misguided in light of the role Taiwan's TSMC play in chip design and manufacture. Long term, clearly China is capable of catching up with ASML's tooling - it's an economic necessity that they do so, even if (big assumption) they'll always be X years behind the current process node. Espionage and desperation are a powerful combination. Short term, doesn't this make Taiwan an even more glittering jewel to the CCP?
Someone want to remind me?, why can't China have these technologies again?